Two former Parramatta Eels players are accused of harbouring semi-automatic weapons and possessing more than half-a-million dollars in cash after dramatic arrests in Sydney's Centennial Park yesterday.

"We won't back a so-called national education system that some states don't support, especially as this government has a history of spending more while schools performance actually goes backwards," Mr Abbott said in his speech.

Liberal frontbenchers have been calling the plan a "con-ski".

Asked at the forum on Friday what he had to say to Mr Gonski, Mr Abbott said: "The genius of this government is to take something good, David Gonski's report, and completely muck it up."

"What this government is doing is robbing Peter to pay Paul. Before it even began to seriously consider the implementation of David's report it announced it would rip $2.8 billion from higher education," he said.